First the Texans left Dallas. Twice, actually. Then the Cowboys deserted the Cotton Bowl for Irving to become the Hole-in-the-Roof gang.
Now the Mavs and the Stars are looking for someplace to play other than American Airlines Center, and suitors are lining up and down the tollway for the latter.
Let me ask: Does it always have to end this way?
Was it something we said?
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Something we didn’t say?
Who’s in charge, anyway?
No one with any vision, that’s for sure. Pretty much a chronic condition around here.
Over the last half-century or so any time the local sports franchises developed a wandering eye, Dallas officials have met the challenge with a collective shrug. Once they finally learned of the infidelity, that is.
Only last week we found out the Stars, whose lease at AAC isn’t up until 2031, have discussed relocation with Plano, Frisco, The Colony and Fort Worth. Fort Worth. Could you imagine? And you thought it was bad when Sonny Dykes left SMU for TCU. At least he didn’t take the Mustangs with him.
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Talks with the suburbs have moved beyond the discussion phase. One report indicated the Stars’ 21-person ownership advisory group deemed Plano its most likely destination.
Brad Alberts, the Stars’ president and CEO, told The Dallas Morning News no one’s put a ring on it yet. They’re just having a good time. But it doesn’t look good. Alberts noted that stadium/arena sites are increasingly real estate plays. Same thing that led Jerry Jones to leave Las Colinas for Frisco. The development of Valley Ranch, which Clint Murchison Jr. once considered a potential entertainment district, was choked off by the neighborhoods encroaching upon it.
Look what’s happened around The Star in Frisco if you were wondering what the Stars say they have in mind.
Alberts’ vision requires at least 75 acres, which might be more than Dallas is prepared to offer, if that’s really what the Stars intend. Could be they’ve already made up their minds and just want to make Dallas look like the bad guys. Jerry did the same when Laura Miller hesitated after he said he wanted to build his new stadium on the same footprint as the little ol’ Cotton Bowl. He had no intention of planting JerryWorld at the State Fair, but he needed to act like he tried, and Laura took the fall.
You can’t win ‘em all, but too often Dallas doesn’t even try. Or, worse, doesn’t even know the game is on.
By the way: Did I mention a City of Dallas spokesperson told The News this is the first they’ve heard of any of this with the Stars? Tells you we need better spies, if nothing else.
The fact that the city keeps finding itself in this position makes you wonder if our city manager form of government works in our best interests. No one blames city officials for the loss of not just one but two iterations of Texans. But, when Murchison despaired of the state of the Cotton Bowl in the mid-’60s and proposed a multi-use stadium downtown along the lines of Busch Stadium in St. Louis, his pleas fell on deaf ears. He subsequently took his team to Irving to build a stadium that let God watch His favorite team play, as D.D. Lewis put it.
Dallas officials were so chastened by the loss of the Cowboys they waited just 40 years before dragging the Cotton Bowl into the 21st century.
While we’re at it, let’s not forget the city’s lack of foresight when it came to pirating the Rangers from Arlington, either.
Back when they were still playing in a minor league park, the Rangers were ripe for the picking. Jerry Bartos, a Dallas city councilman, made a public pitch in the late ‘80s, but it never gained any traction. Not even when the George W. Bush-Rusty Rose group entertained offers for a new address.
Dallas pushed the area adjacent to the Farmer’s Market as well as tax abatements; the Rangers weren’t impressed. Maybe they were just using Dallas for leverage with Arlington. Not the first or last time it’s happened. Doesn’t mean you don’t play.
The problem I wrote about in 1990 is the same problem now. No one’s in charge. It’s no wonder when you consider the pushback. When the late Bobby Folsom, a can-do mayor, built an arena on the western edge of town, critics called it “Folsom’s Folly” or “Folsom’s Prism.” Made a nice house for the Mavs when the NBA opened shop in Dallas.
Ron Kirk provided a vision for a toxic site just north of downtown that weathered a grass-roots effort to quash it in one of the closest votes in city history. The result? The city’s investment in American Airlines Center, capped at $125 million, has returned a private investment 25 years later of nearly $3 billion in Victory Park alone.
“I think that’s more than a pretty good deal,” Kirk told The News last year.
But, in order to get just such a deal, you need someone riding point. As far as I can tell, the last thing Eric Johnson pitched came last year when he proposed a second NFL franchise for Dallas. Like Jerry would sanction that. He wouldn’t allow another NFL team as close as San Antonio.
Anyway, the rejection must have been a blow to the mayor’s ego, because he’s pretty much been AWOL ever since.
Chances are it’s too late to keep the Stars, who tipped their hand when they moved their offices and practice facilities to the ‘burbs.
On the other hand, the city won the Wings from Arlington! Just as soon as they finish reupholstering old Memorial Coliseum, a redo now more than a year in arrears. Hard to find parts of that vintage, probably.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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